My dog started pulling me when she was about 3. Not sure what initiated it but the solution my trainer gave me worked miracles. Every time she pulls in front .. change direction. She eventually tired of being tugged here and there and the walk can then commence as usual. The first day we got nowhere however LOL. We would get as far as the next door neighbor when i would have to turn around. Then the driveway .. the next door neighbor .. the driveway. Well u get the picture. Just keep at it for your regular walk time. Twenty minutes the first day here and no progress. Next day only 2 turns and we were back on track. She gave up wooohooo. No problems since.

Not sure what starts this behaviour, but something makes them think they are the leader. Something we are doing btw. Take control, be the leader, as frustrating as those first few walks might be just stay calm and in control. You weren't going anywhere anyways so the 20 minutes in front of your house isn't hurting anything.

The thing that works most of the time for me is to counter the lunge or pull with a sideways jerk of the leash. Not a hard jerk, just enough to alter the forward movement. The key is to make the correction quickly in relation to the pull or lunge. Some dogs need many corrections, some just a day or two. The method suggested above is also a good one---both redirect the dogs attention to you and what you want.

A harness is not the way to go. All that will do will make it easier for the dog to pull you. You could try a "Gentle Leader". It's a nylon strap type collar that has a strap that goes over the dogs head along the snout and then wraps around the snout where you clip your leash underneath his jaw. So anytime the dog pulls ahead his head is automatically turned sideways. The harder he pulls naturally the harder his head is turned back towards looking at you. Very effective, takes a little practice for your dog to get used to it. It is not in anyway a muzzle, the dog can still bite, eat, chew. as normal.

I know some don't like them but in our puppy class if someone had trouble with pulling, they were told to use a Pinch collar. We started ours with one and never had a problem with them pulling. They don't need them now at all.

Our neighbor who has a large Bassett Hound was always being jerked around by Rufous. The first time he pulled on her with the pinch collar on he stopped and hasn't jerked again. Now he walks so nicely with her and is much calmer (she has gone through the classes now).

The pinch collars don't hurt the dog but they do get a sense of pressure from the prongs. You can get them with rubber tips on the ends and that lessens it more. I would certainly be willing to try one if I were you.

You want the dog to walk right beside you not in back or front. It is amazing how they respond with the training. My little girl naturally slows down as I do, stays even with me and I don't have any tension on the leash.

Makes taking walks enjoyable!

If I were you I'd get a leash and loop it through the handle and slip it over the dog's head directly below the head, where it meets the neck.

This is the weakest part of the dog's neck and they don't like pulling anymore. And if you continue walking with this method, they'll stop.

You also need to keep the dog at your side, a little bit behind you. The pack leader walks in front. Not the subordinates.

I work at a kennel and I do this and it works amazingly well, even on the huge excited dogs.

What breed or size dog is it that you're dealing with?

She is appx 2.5 year old Lab mix we adapted from the mutt. She is not trained, but she is very lovely, intelligent and listens to what we say. It is a lack of training. See picture below

Here is a link that might be useful:

pkguy is right, try a Gentle Leader. Also, until your dog is obedient and walking on a loose lead, don't walk her on a flex-leash, just use a regular, flat leash (I think you have to on a gentle leader anyway).

You might also try to wear her out a bit before you walk, young labs have a ton of energy. Play fetch in the back yard for 20 minutes before walk to burn off that excess energy.

For the stop-n-sniff, you need to teach her the "leave it command". A basic obedience class will help you learn how to teach this command.

Gentle Leader also makes a Gentle Walk Harness that works wonders. It is easier to use than a leader which is worn on the head (I'm talking about working with shelter dogs here). It goes on like a regular harness, but your leash hooks on in the front instead of the back.

When your dog pulls, it automatically turns them back towards you, similar to the above training exercise of stopping and going in a different direction.

We've had tons of success on some of the strongest pulling dogs in our shelter. We've had a few nothing seems to work on, but the majority is a night and day difference.

Your pup is beautiful!
Sher

place the leash up close to the dogs ears - hold it upright like the people at the dog shows do, correct your dog whenever it starts to pull. Be sure you are not allowing your dog to stop and sniff at every bush while on its walk, first couple of minutes I save for pee and poo then it is a brisk walk for 30 to 45 minutes

I would start with the above approach myself (Mazer's) and see if that doesn't fix the problem. Remember that the dog you have adopted might never have been walked on leash before and just kept outside tied up so this walking thing and all this attention, understandably, is something to get really excited over.

My lab was a terrible puller when she was a young dog. We ended up using an anti-tug harness. I'm not sure if it's the same as the Gentle Walk Harness mentioned above, but would guess it may be. This one is rigged in such a way that when the dog pulls the leash, the harness pulls in the front under the neck, essentially pulling them down. It broke her of the tugging habit very quickly and I'd definitely recommend it.

OK, here's the one I used...

Here is a link that might be useful: Holt no-tug dog harness

My Husky HATED the Gentle Leader, Halti, and every other face harness on the market. Being a sled dog, his job was to pull, but of course I wanted a well-behaved Husky. I used the changing direction technique on the first Husky Aleksander. It took a while and he yelped and screamed like I was kicking him up the street the first couple of times, not because I was hurting him (I wasn't) but because he wanted to do things HIS way. That stopped after a while, but not before the neighbors made sure that I wasn't abusing my dog.

Now I have another Husky, Tatyana and she of course wants to pull too. She also hates the Gentle Leader, Halti, and whatever other brand of face harness I have. The company that makes Gentle Leader now makes a body harness called the Easy Walk harness and she does GREAT with it. I also have used the changing direction technique on her, but she really responds best to the Easy Walk.

I think every dog is different and you just need to work through what he reponds to the best. Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Easy Walk harness

Easy Walk - that's what I was referring to, not Gentle Walk. It's made by Gentle Leader. Sorry!

Sher

I too have had success with the Easy Walk harness. I've tried the other behavioral techniques and they haven't worked for me, but in my case I think it's because my dog is just too used to being off leash - we generally walk through forests, farmland and beaches where he has free reign, so when I get the leash on him he doesn't understand why all of a sudden he has to crawl next to me at a snails pace and have no fun. Where I live I have to always be concerned with icy streets & sidewalks, where pulling can be dangerous (in fact I did take a nasty fall on my head last March on some black ice, an experience I don't care to repeat!) This harness has been a lifesaver!

The major cause of subluxations (needing chiropractic care, especially in old age) in a dog's neck and spine is pulling on collars. The facial halters aren't a lot better on that scale, though they do give you more control. Third on the list for causing damage would be a harness. (Read "The Well Adjusted Dog.")

A young exhuberant Lab is a very difficult dog to walk because they're all full of curiosity about the world and have tons of energy.

I would get him an Easy Walk harness. Then I'd plan not to be jerking on it for his sake, and for the sake of your future vet bills. I'd strap a bait bag/fanny pack chock full of teensy (green pea sized) bits of real meat or cheese around your waist. They sell wonderful ones that manage easily with one hand.

Then I'd start out by making circles. Circles are a grand training tool. At first, circle counter-clockwise. You may be doing this for several days. Start with smaller circles and make them bigger as he gains control over himself.

Make a click noise with your mouth when he is in heel position, which is with his shoulder right next to your left knee, not behind you or in front of you. Your "click" tells him "THAT is what's earning you the treat." Stop walking immediately and give him a wee treat and praise him. Then continue walking.

Once he's doing well with counter-clockwise circles (probably after about ten training sessions) both small and large, then switch to clockwise circles.

At first, give out lots of clicks and treats, which will mean lots of starting and stopping for you. As time progresses, gradually ask a little more of him so that overall he's having to heel for more time to earn his clicks and treats. However, don't just make it harder and harder. Be progressing toward more, but sometimes reward for less. This will keep him guessing and working hard for that treat, which may come at any moment.

Use a loose leash at all times. You will be turning into him constantly in the counter-clockwise direction. Between your walking into him and your clicking and treating, he will learn to pay attention to you and to think about controlling his own behavoior, which is what you want.

With the counter-clockwise direction, he will be learning not to lag behind; he'll get clicks and treats for keeping up with you and yes, he'll get slight pulls when he lags behind -- but with the Easy Walk harness the pressure is distributed more evenly on his body. Anyway, by that time he'll have learned to pay careful attention to you and to adjust his behavior based on yours. You're building a foundation here for a really great dog.

Once he's good at both counter- and clock-wise heeling in small and large circles -- which you should expect to take at least several days to a couple, three weeks, depending on how often you train -- then you can start venturing out on very short walks, like half a block. Later you'll keep making the walks range farther out. Keep clicking and treating, sometimes for just a few steps, like maybe three or five, in proper position, and at other times for longer stints, maybe up to a half a block. You will work into doing whole blocks or even more. At that point you can start varying between using clicks and treats, or using other rewards such as a butt scratch, or a chance to sniff the grass or tree a squirrel.

I don't know the age of your dog, but we know that younger dogs and especially puppies have short attention spans. So we work them for 3-5 minutes, and then give them a chance to go sniff the bushes or whatever. They really do need to explore their world, as that's an important part of their education too. Then we work for a few more minutes and take a break for a couple of minutes. Even with older dogs this can be a good approach to maximize their learning time. A good size for a training session in the beginning with a young dog is no more than 15-20 minutes, including some little breaks.

I would put the breaks on cue, like, "Okay" which means "at ease, soldier." I'd also put the working times on cue, like "Ready?" so he learns that means it's time to pay attention to you. Once he's pretty good at heeling and you can bet your lunch he'll do it then you can start adding the cue "heel" which means "walk with your shoulder next to my knee at all times no matter what I do." "Okay" will be your release from that.

Please remember not to move ahead in leaps and bounds. Think baby steps. The first time you drove a car, hopefully nobody threw you onto the freeway... they started you in a parking lot where you couldn't make many big mistakes, right? They set you up to win.

Taking a young dog out on leash into the Whole Wide World is setting him and yourself up to fail, just like tossing a new car driver out onto the freeway. So baby steps is the way to build a really fantastic dog. That means we break down any behavior we're teaching and always set the dog up to win. Teach in order from the easiest to the hardest.

Easiest in the case of loose leash walking (LLW) is a circle in your back yard, then your driveway, then the street right in front of your house. Hardest is probably at an active dog park. If you remember not to progress to the next step until he's doing well on the step he's on, your progress will move smoothly ahead without setbacks. If you find his behavior is falling apart, you went too fast. Move back to a step he knows well and progress forward more slowly.

If you do this, every day he will be headed in the right direction, learning to become the well mannered dog that you want. It won't be long before you'll be taking long walks in all sorts of situations with a dog who is very well behaved. He will be taking responsiblity for his own behavior, rather than you having to jerk on a leash ad nauseum. That's what I want with my own dogs; I want them to take the responsibility for behavior because they want to behave, not me to have to work hard forever. If we put in the work up front we can have really fantastic dogs. But if we don't we can have headaches that can go on for years.

Well, I hope this helped. Trust me, it really is worth the effort to train our dogs carefully, as the results are really amazing Lassie-type dogs when we do. Plus, training with treats is fun for both us and our dogs. Jerking on a leash and getting frustrated isn't. :-)

Funny, we just took our new girl, a 3 year old sheltie, for her first walk in our local park today, and she's not very well leash-trained. Near the end of the long walk, as we had to go back up a couple of hills to get to the car, she would "put on the brakes" and refuse to go forward, and we were afraid the collar would pop right off (as it has before). I was prepared with little dried liver bits in my pocket, and when she refused to go further, I said, "Zoey, look, Mama's got a treat!" and showed her the liver bit, waving it near her nose. This got her moving again and interested in *me*, instead of sniffing the bushes, and every minute or two, she got a little liver bit as a reward, and she kept the leash loose, too, no pulling. She was pretty focused on me (though DH held the leash), and this was only the first time I've tried this.

So, I think it worked! I got the idea from a training video I saw on youtube that I stumbled across when looking for sheltie videos. If you search for "maddogagility" on there and click on the video where she's training an 11-week-old sheltie named Winston, she does a bit of loose leash training, and she keeps the pup interested in *her*, instead of other distractions, by providing tasty treats. Brilliant trainer, I thought.

"we were afraid the collar would pop right off (as it has before)"

Consider getting a martingale collar instead of a plain buckle. It has limited choking action so that it won't actually choke your dog, but when properly adjusted it will prevent them from slipping out of the collar.

These come in cloth and cloth-chain combinations, depending on what you like. I have a greyhound and we always use one of these - it's very handy for dogs with small heads (like greyhounds) or thick necks, because it's easy for them to slip out of a normal collar even when properly adjusted. You can also order them in various materials so that they are extra-soft on the dog's neck.

olga d, where did you get your martingale collar? My sheltie does have a slim head!

Has Sethramesh taken a hike? It took me a long time to write that post and I was kind of worried that maybe I was wasting my time. :/

Thank you all for your help. oceanna - Thank you a lot for your great write-up above. This really helps novice like me. I purchased a gentle leader and tried it today. she did not pull, but i felt she was not comfortable with the collar. she was trying to remove it with her leg, failed and walked with it for 2 miles.

I am also going to buy a Easy walk harness and try how she feels

Thanks again every one. This is a great forum.

Happy Xmas and holidays

oceanna, you didn't waste your time, even if sethramesh doesn't visit again. You made great points about how not to set yourself up for failure when training, and I like your training style. People who visit the website and search the archives will benefit, and I plan to use your tips when training my little girl to walk on a loose leash!

I personally don't like jerking on a dog's leash, nor do I like pinch collars. My recently departed boy sheltie was a retired showdog who had been trained in the method you described, and he *never* pulled. I chucked my retractable leash because he'd never put any tension on it. He didn't pay any attention to other people, dogs, cats, birds.... his attention was only on walking with us, because he had learned that he'd be rewarded for that. It was wonderful, and I hope to train my girl sheltie the same way.

Sethramesh, oh I'm happy you saw my post. :-) Most dogs don't like the halter kind of "collar." I've heard this time and again and it was true for my dogs too. I think they except the Easy Walker much better and folks I've heard from who've tried it loved it... but I haven't tried it myself but intend to get one. The method of training I described should work well with any type of collar... but I remember my daughter's Lab/Boxer as a puppy and man oh man what energy! Had those been out then I'd have definitely gotten my daughter one. Please keep us posted and let us know how this works for you. I teach dog and parrot training and I love feedback.

Cutter, thanks! Yes it's very important to set ourselves and our dogs up to succeed, and training is so much more fun that way. I'm with you on not liking jerking... it's not good for me and it's not good for my dog. I end up at the chiropractor's office... and eventually, so does my dog. Shelties are really sweet little dogs. I used to have a pair of them. The only thing I didn't like was the shedding. Wow can they shed. Have fun training your little girl that way. Have you gotten her yet?

"olga d, where did you get your martingale collar?"

I got ours from a local vendor at a greyhound event. However there are many manufacturers online - small shops often run by sighthound owners, and large ones like Lupine (on the Lupine page look for their Combo collar, that's what they call the martingale).

Here is a couple more I have bookmarked (although I've never ordered from them personally):
http://www.furrybabyfashions.com/
http://www.collarmania.com/

If you do a web search for martingale collars you'll probably get a lot of results too. I would like to add a disclaimer that any tightening collar, such as a martingale, should not be left on a dog when unattended. If part of the collar or the tags should get caught on something, or if you have multiple dogs that play together, the dog could panic and choke or injure itself. Please remove the collar before leaving your pet home alone. Personally, I prefer to remove all collars while we're at home for this reason.

Oceanna, thank you for you very informative post. I have tried to train my dog to be better at leash walking, but the problem I run into is inconsistency. I will do a training session within a small area, but if I need to walk him beyond that area, to do his "business" or for exercise, it's right back to the pulling. But I don't want to prevent him from pooping or getting exercise - so I feel as if the training really happening because he's not getting the same response every time. How would you suggest I handle this better?

Naturegurl, can't he do his business in your fenced yard? Or don't you have one? If you have a fenced yard, encourage him to do his business there. If you clicker train it, the dog is very likely to run out and do his business very promptly. It's by far the easiest way I've ever housebroken a dog.

I'm trying to see if we can't separate leash training and potty time? I'd train in the ball of a cul de sac, even if you have to drive your car to one. Then start making those circles loop slightly out of the cul de sac ball, then more and more. Sneak up on it.

If you have to potty him on walks, then take a clicker and treats and use the Easy Walker, and I think you'll have a much easier time of it. Don't forget to give him some "at ease" breaks. He should get better at not pulling as he learns he's working now, and in a few minutes he'll get a break. For now you may do better with the training if you play a few minutes of fetch to tire him out before you leave on the walks.

I'll give it a shot, thank you for the suggestion. I never clicker trained him but have been considering it. This is probably a good time of year to work on training as there is snow and ice everywhere and we're not getting the same exercise we do in the warmer weather.